4 Ways to Leverage Facebook & Google Analytics Data for Paid Social Campaigns

It’s no joke that Facebook and Google Analytics don’t play well together. The two platforms are inherently different, in terms of conversion attribution, click vs. view data and cross-device reporting. However, Google Analytics and Facebook Ads data can be leveraged together to find opportunities to improve your overall digital marketing efforts. Here are some ways you can take advantage of the two platforms.

Understand Your Backfill

Facebook backfill analyses can determine oscillations in conversion numbers on a day-to-day basis. You may see sharp drops in daily conversion numbers in Facebook, while seeing consistent performance in GA. This is because GA attributes conversions to the day of conversion, while Facebook attributes to the day of click. Because Facebook uses day of click data, you can use backfill to analyze how long it takes for a person to convert after being delivered an ad. Through a backfill analysis, you are able to see how many people purchase within a 1-day, 7-day, and 28-day window. This can help you determine on which days of the week you should increase your ad spend and how long you should wait before you should assess your full return on that ad spend.

Determine International Expansion

With GA data, you can determine the strategy for launching international Facebook marketing campaigns. You might be hesitant to expand into new territories, since you don’t necessarily know how they will perform. Google Analytics, however, can provide insight on which countries are driving the highest conversion numbers on your website. By using data from territories that have strong direct and organic search performance, you can more easily determine the best countries in which to expand your advertising efforts.

Discover Your Cash Cows

Google Analytics also reports which products are driving the most revenue on your site. This data is advantageous for developing paid social creative for new customer acquisition. By knowing your top-performing products, you can craft ad copy and imagery around these cash cows. Furthermore, using landing pages within your Facebook ads for your bestselling products puts you in a strong position when launching new prospecting campaigns.

See Full-Funnel Attribution

View-through data helps you understand how many consumers convert after first seeing your Facebook ads. View-through conversions (especially for prospecting campaigns) are more important on Facebook due to the near 100% share of screen that Facebook Ads take up in the FB News Feed. This information is only available in Facebook, so the data will not display in Google Analytics.

However, when analyzing conversion data across all channels in Google Analytics, it’s important to understand that parts of organic search, paid search, and direct conversion numbers in GA are actually attributed to Facebook within Facebook’s channel data. This is why Facebook channel conversion numbers are higher than those attributed to Facebook in GA. When developing your paid social campaigns, looking at 1-day view-through data in comparison to 28-day click-through data is important – especially when evaluating top-of-funnel prospecting audiences, such as lookalikes.

Now that you know some key strategies to leverage Facebook and GA data, enjoy optimizing!